The upper patio is starting to come together. The masons are hard at work on the main walls and the lower seating walls.
As you can see from this photo and from the one above the view is incredible. For safety there will be a very minimal guard rail and planting barriers but for the most part the view will be pretty much just like this. Here you can see one of the seating walls around the fire pit. Imagine sitting...

Another site visit our at Belvedere. Blue tarps are gone from the front entry but all of the beautiful cast stone is now covered in pink foam to protect it for the rest of construction.
Progress continues on the exterior stone and cast stone and upper terrace. The bevel is also cut on the perimeter cast stone.
The waterproofing and tile is installed in the screen porch. Any water that goes through the screens will drain out behind a trim piece and...

Following the conclusion of the stair project (check out one of the posts here) We worked with the Sextons to develop an updated landscape plan that better fit the way they use the outdoor space. The adjacent house has a raised brick paver patio that looks directly onto their deck and front door. They sent us a few images of asian art that they liked and we came up with a scale of panel that looked good on site and...

About a month ago, contractors, collaborators, friends and former RDM'ers gathered to celebrate the upcoming new baby of Mike and Heather! Rick and Mindy put together a great party and a great time was had by all. Mini-Mike received some great stuff and it looks like he may be following in Dad's footsteps as a future KU grad.
Heather is a big fan of the Runaway Bunny Book and the nursery has a bunny theme. At the office we wanted to...

Cooper dog had to have some minor surgery last week to remove a couple benign tumors. He insists on chewing the bandages off despite Rick's best and most creative efforts. Bad Dog! He has gone back to the vet to get it cleaned and new bandages and from now on will be wearing the bucket of shame. He is not amused by his new headwear.
He should be on the mend now and will be back to his normal...

A hot day out at Belvedere for a site visit but things on the interior and the exterior continue to move along despite the weather. Here is a view of the front of the house, the masons have made a little tarp fort for themselves as the sun just beats down on the front of the house.
This is what is happening behind the tarps. The cast stone has arrived and is going up at the columns on the front porch....

RDM had another opportunity to do a little woodworking to add the icing on top of a recently completed screen porch and patio we designed. Plantings will be used to visually screen the new patio from the street but the walk faces the street and they wanted something to give them a little privacy and to make sure people coming to the house know this isn't the main entrance.
Matthew built this gate like a piece of furniture and it was...

Results are in! RDM won an award in the traditional architecture category for the 1232 Residence ( see the final photos here ) It was a great party and we're already looking forward to next year when we'll have quite a few new projects to enter.
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We met up with the Phosphor Interactive guys last week for lunch and to check up on the project. A lot has happened since we were last down there but we really wanted to highlight the metal work that our buddy Pascal at Meya Metalworks has done over there.
During construction, in order to create some more headroom on the second floor we removed a number of existing bar joists. At the time we thought these things were great and that they...